This is news gathered
from a UK contact working for a small relief organisation based in
Baghdad. He has been in regular contact with relief staff on the ground
in Iraq who for the past two weeks  since November 10th - have
been trying to get convoys of aid into Fallujah but have been prevented
from doing so by Occupation Forces.

The first time they tried to get a convoy in was June. The convoy
was halted and in effect stolen, confiscated, by Iraqi soldiers under
the command of Occupation Forces.

The Iraqi soldiers confiscated medical supplies  penicillin,
syringes, consumables, bandages, plastic gloves, and sanitary equipment.
No reason given by individual Iraqi soldiers was We need it
more than they do  these are the exact words used. The
soldier then announced that the goods would be taken in the name of
the Ministry of Health. The incident happened on the road between
Baghdad and Fallujah.

The most recent Convoy
was attacked by Occupation Forces on Wednesday 24th November. It was
part of 3 trucks laden with aid. It contained blankets, water, medical
supplies, cooking gas, and basic foodstuffs such as rice, flour, sugar,
salt etc. Troops fired on the truck hitting it 6 times. Noone was
injured but the convoy was forced to turn back. There was no dialogue
with the soldiers.

The NGO trying to carry
out this work cannot be named for security reasons. Staff report a
climate of fear where speaking out about occupation violations can
result in targeting, censorship and possible shut-down of operations
by the neo-Baathist Alawi government. Staff have been processing and
supporting families fleeing Fallujah and have been listening to their
stories.

There is a need for these
stories and testimonies to be heard but those involved do not want
their names revealed for fear of retaliation. Such constraints make
journalistic reporting difficult. Confirmation of sources is hampered
by a lack of personal access to Fallujah and Baghdad and the situation
on the ground. Reliance on testimonies through third parties is also
problematic yet this is the best that can be done under the circumstances.
The news below is corroborated by similar reports in the Arabic and
mainstream media.

Here are examples
of reports from Fallujah
as conveyed to Iraqi relief staff in Baghdad:


Residents of the Hay Julan area who were able to flee Fallujah described
an apple smelling chemical with which they were exposed to before
the main onslaught into Fallujah. There was a break of about half
a day between the presence of the gas/chemical and when the main assault
started. The chemical created open wounds on the skin which were very
hard to treat.

After a while all exposed areas on the skin were cracked and bleeding.
People came out of Fallujah with these injuries. They described smoke,
a sweet smell and when they were exposed to the smoke, they coughed
up blood and had cracked bleeding skin. Most of these families were
hiding. When they smelled the gas they thought this was a gas attack
and fled their homes and made their way through small backroads unoccupied
by Occupation Forces.

This happened at the beginning of the attack on Fallujah  around
2 weeks ago.


There were many families who left young people to guard their homes
 18 years old and younger, teenagers, people of not fighting
age who they thought would be too young to be targeted by troops.
A common theme running through each family grouping which fled Fallujah
is that they elected one or two people to stay behind and look after
their houses.

One woman said she wanted
to commit suicide as shed left her son there and her home was
no longer there. A lot of families said they could not understand
the figure of 170 families being put forward by the Red Crescent Society
(Arabic medical relief agency). Their estimation was 3-4 times larger.
They were aware of a significant number of families left behind. The
explanation offered by them was that they must have fled to another
part of Fallujah or been killed.


The families said they were prevented from returning to Fallujah to
pick up dead bodies of relatives. One family which had had their home
shelled went to Saqlaawiya which is a village just outside of Fallujah.
Saqlaawiya and Ameriyaht Fallujah (1700 families from Fallujah are
living there in tents, provided by aid organisations) are under siege
by Occupation Forces.

This is where families are able to go. In the beginning of the invasion
of Fallujah, there was a missile attack on Saqlaawiya. Noone knows
what happened in the aftermath of this. A group of Saqlaawiya families
have been trying to return to pick up their dead but have been prevented.


The main areas housing recent refugees (many of the initial refugees
went to Baghdad) are: Saqlaawiya, Baquba, Ameriat Fallujah, and Heed
and this is where the information is coming from.

Latest News

Conveyed today through
the NGO contact in the UK:


There are systematic arrests by Occupation Troops of boys aged 14-years
and upwards are taking place in Heed, Baquba, Ahmeriyat Fallujah,
Saqlaawiya and Ramadi. House to house searches.


Ahdemeeya in Baghdad is a no-go zone. Pitched battles are taking place
between the resistance and occupation forces. British troops are carrying
out house-to-house searches in properties along the Euphrates River
edging towards Baghdad.

Statement from NGO
co-ordinator in
UK after contact with Baghdad office:


The situation is more volatile than previously assessed. An
Iraqi journalist was trying to take pictures of our convoy. A car
pulled up, a civilian car from Fallujah, and accused the journalist
of being a spy. The driver pulled out a gun and pointed it at the
journalist and accused him of working for the Iraqi Mokhabarat (Intelligence
services) and threatened to shoot him dead. This happened in the vicinity
of Fallujah. Had it not been for intervention from those accompanying
the aid agency, the situation could have escalated.


Every day we are trying to send convoys into Fallujah but we are being
blocked by occupation troops. The psychology of the situation is very
dangerous. There is a ruthlessness and blind reaction by people to
perceived threats, as the incident with the journalist shows us. People
have lost their familes, their loved ones, their homes. There is a
lot of psychological damage and instability.

Our co-ordinator has
said that it is not safe to talk to the media about what is happening.
(People are afraid of being accused of scaremongering and fomenting
or inciting violence against the government or coalition troops
which is an offence under Bremers
Order on prohibited media activity.


The number of families which got out in the last few days is 2-3 times
greater than previously estimated from all areas. At first we had
150 families come out from Fallujah to Heed. Now we have seen over
1000 families come to the Heed and Ameriyaht area. Now they cannot
leave these areas. Americans control the whole area. Aid has definitely
been let into Ameriyaht. But it has been limited in Baquba and Ramadi.
The situation is a crisis.


The Americans have been allowing families out of Fallujah. But there
are 170 families remaining in the area controlled by the Americans
which is only about 45% of Fallujah. This means that most of Fallujah
is still in the hands of the resistance. Under US control are the
Al Wahde, Julan and Hay Sinai areas in the North of Fallujah.
But there is still sporadic fighting in these areas and all over the
place.

The fighting never stops. Guerilla fighters move from house to house,
they never stop. And there are areas within these areas which are
still changing hands. There was fighting in the Julan area today this
morning. All the main roads are not safe. Water and electricity in
the city is still cut. It is a bonus if people can move and survive.
Resistance fighters are moving in and out quickly of areas as they
know that if the military identifies those areas it will bomb them
from the air. They keep moving. They can escape as they know every
inch of the city. This is the tactic. Almost every house in Al Wahde,
Julan and Hay SinaI has been searched.


There are families trapped in the desert close to Fallujah without
anything. They have no tents, nothing, they are just in the bare desert,
these families are seen from Convoys trying to deliver aid. If you
stop or leave roads already known then there is fear of being targeted
by US snipers.

The situation is not
secure for vehicles to break away from Convoys to come out and deal
with them as they are too close to Fallujah and this means people
coming to them are perceived as a security threat to the Americans.
There are 10s of families there but there are no specific numbers.
We have managed to help families in other parts of the desert, further
away from Fallujah itself.

This report was compiled
by Ewa Jasiewicz,
activist journalist who spent 9 months in Occupied Iraq.

November
9th, 2004 was Fallujah's 9/11 Tuesday. It marked the peak of
3 days of indiscriminate bombing by US forces.

The bomb blitz featured weapons of mass destruction:
banned napalm-type munitions, chemical poison gas and super-bombs
of up to 2,000-pounds.

The ground assault was also indiscriminate. The target was a
city where at least 60,000 civilians outnumbered rebel fighters
by over thirty to one.

The evidence
of those crimes is accumulating, as accounts by aid workers'
from inside Fallujah manage to bypass reporting restrictions.
..Our Exposé

The relevant US commanders
should be immediately detained and interrogated --so we can
determine on whose orders they acted, that
others may also face justice.

The attack on Fallujah was the worst single terrorism
atrocity since 2,752 people
died in New York on
Tuesday, 9/11/2001. The Iraqi Red Crescent fear
up to 6,000 killed so far,
in the terror on Fallujah.

Just
as in the movie Saving Private Ryan, U.S. forces in the "assault"
on Fallujah
have a mission aimed at a single man: the elusive
Musab al-Zarqawi. They seek
him here. They seek him there.
They seek him everywhere.

But, Zarqawi remains as disappointingly fictional as ever.

No doubt he has "slipped
away" from Fallujah. I suppose
that's only to be expected
when you are fighting against
an enemy which uses guerilla
warfare. "Slipping away" is the
very definition of guerilla war.